


Saved to Voicemail

by houdini74



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Boys In Love, Committed Relationship, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 14:52:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18390638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houdini74/pseuds/houdini74
Summary: David is surprised by what he finds in Patrick's voicemail.





	Saved to Voicemail

“I saved it in my voicemail.” Patrick tossed his phone to David before heading out the door to the cafe. 

Why the caterer would phone Patrick’s number instead of his own when David had been the one making the arrangements was just one more irritating detail in what had been a rocky business relationship. If her food hadn’t been so delicious and the wedding so close, he would have been looking for other options.

He quickly entered Patrick’s passcode into his phone and dialed his voicemail, putting it on speakerphone.

“You have no new messages and twelve saved messages” the recorded voice informed him. Twelve messages? What could be so important that the caterer needed so many messages? He pressed the button to listen to the first message.

“Hi David, it’s Patrick.” His own voice echoed through the phone at him, rambling and unfocused. He stared at the phone in confusion as though that would shed some light on the situation.

The first message had ended. Cautiously, he pressed the button for the next message. 

“Hi Patrick, yeah I think I...I think I called you David. Which, that’s not...that’s not your name.”

As he made his way through the rest of the voicemails, he couldn’t keep from smiling. The messages were horrible and embarrassing, even more so because he’d gotten high with Stevie before making the calls, but he was overwhelmed by the thought that Patrick had saved them all this time. He was on the last one, listening to himself talk about the name he’d decided on for the store, when Patrick returned from the cafe.

“Did you talk to the caterer….oh…” Patrick blushed and looked away as he heard David’s voice over the speaker on his phone. He smiled sheepishly, “I guess my secret is out of the bag, huh?”

“I can’t believe you saved them.” David’s voice was soft.

“David, I gave you a copy of our first sales receipt for your birthday,” Patrick said fondly, as though his persistent sentimentality should be obvious.

“I know, but you didn’t even know me when I left those messages. Unless you were in the habit of saving all your business messages just in case you might fall in love with your clients?”

Patrick looked away. He looked, not uncomfortable exactly, but as though he had a secret that he wasn’t sure how to share. 

“I’ve only ever saved messages from clients that I thought I might have feelings for,” he said quietly.

David grinned broadly, preening a little at Patrick’s acknowledgement of the early effect that David had had on him. A sudden thought occurred to him and his mockery faded away. 

“Wait. Why didn’t you just delete them right after you listened to them? We’d had one ten minute conversation when I left those messages. Why would you save them?”

He expected Patrick to say that he’d forgotten to delete the messages right away or that he thought they might help with future paperwork. But instead, Patrick stared out the window for a few seconds. When he turned back to David, his eyes were steady and warm. “Because that’s when I knew,” he said. “That’s when I knew that I had feelings for you. After one ten minute conversation.”

Patrick’s response was so sincere and unexpected that David’s eyes filled with tears. Ever since Patrick had proposed, it seemed like he cried more easily, as though his body was trying to release the tears from years of failed relationships before he and Patrick got married. Or maybe it was simply the security of knowing they were going to spend the rest of their lives together that had destroyed the last of his defenses. 

Patrick’s fingers gently wiped the tears away and he leaned forward to kiss David. 

“When did you know?” Patrick asked, clearly curious. “When did you first hope there might be...something?”

David considered the question. He’d spent so much time at the beginning denying that there could possibly be anything between them, but he knew the answer, regardless.

“When you dropped off the business license,” he admitted.

“So that was what? Four days after we met?”

“I guess it was,” he said with a laugh. It had seemed like a lot longer, probably due to his stubborn refusal to accept that Patrick might be interested in him but he couldn’t deny the spark that he’d felt when Patrick had come to the store unexpectedly. He recalled those first days as a mixture of heady anticipation and anxiety, with the potency of wanting something new that he wasn’t sure he would be allowed to have.

Thinking about the early moments of their relationship made him vibrate, as though someone had struck a bell inside him. He could feel it in the tips of his fingers and he pulled Patrick towards him, needing to touch him. Patrick obliged, stepping into David and rubbing his hands gently up David’s arms, before settling them at his waist. 

He saw Patrick glance at his lips, the way he always did before he kissed him. His stomach fluttered. He’d never been sure if Patrick did it consciously, but it never failed to turn him on. Before Patrick could follow through, he leaned down to kiss him first, smiling as he felt Patrick’s lips part slightly. It wasn’t gentle, maybe comfortable was a better description, and he felt Patrick anticipate the kiss, giving David back what he was taking. A warm, soft feeling spread through him as he pulled Patrick closer.

“Oh fuck,” he said suddenly, breaking away from their kiss. “I didn’t listen to the message from the caterer. Now I’m going to have to listen to all of those voicemails again.”

***

Later that evening they were curled up in bed, David had his head on Patrick’s chest while Patrick idly ran his fingers through David’s hair. He had protested as usual, but secretly he always loved the feeling of Patrick’s hands, even when they were messing up his hair.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the messages on Patrick’s phone. He wasn’t surprised that Patrick had kept them all this time. Patrick wasn’t exactly sentimental, but he was more introspective about their relationship. For a brief moment he had an image of Patrick, newly arrived in town, relistening to his voicemails and trying to sort out his feelings about David, about himself. He blinked quickly to hold back more tears.

He knew he wasn’t as good at romantic gestures as Patrick was. He never remembered to save little momentos like receipts or voicemails. He propped himself up on one elbow so that he could see Patrick’s face.

“Are we doing gifts?” he asked.

“Given that we spent three days arguing about the wedding registry, yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re doing gifts,” Patrick replied. “I still can’t believe I let you talk me into that coffee roaster.”

“Well, you wouldn’t let me put that $800 vanity mirror on the list, so I think we’re even.” 

Patrick rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

“But I meant are we giving gifts.” David gestured to encompass both of them. “To each other.”

Patrick’s eyes flicked away from his for a second and for a quick moment there was a look of love mixed with a tiny amount of guilt on his face.

“Wait, you’ve already done something about this, haven’t you? Were you going to tell me about this part of the plan?”

He finds that he’s not just being dramatic when he asks the question. He is a little upset that Patrick would plan to make this kind of gesture without giving him the opportunity to make one in return.

“You should have told me,” he said softly. “It doesn’t feel right that you’d get me something without my getting you something too. Not on our wedding day.”

Patrick was quiet for a moment. “You’re right,” he said, finally. “That wasn’t fair. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you.” Placing his hand at the back of David’s neck, he pulled him close for a kiss. David returned his kiss happily before settling back with his head on Patrick’s chest. The idea of waiting to find out what gift Patrick had planned was suddenly torturous. 

“You know,” he said after a minute. “You’re much better at gift-giving than I am. So in the interest of fairness, I think you should at least give me a hint about what you got me. Just so that I can make sure my gift is up to par.”

“Was that a sports reference?” Patrick asked jokingly.

“Is what a sports reference?” David replied, confused. “Do they have pars in baseball?”

Beneath his cheek, he could hear Patrick’s laughter building. 

“I love you, David,” Patrick said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

***

For the next three days, he looked at websites and blogs, searching for ideas for the perfect gift. The variety of gift ideas seemed both ridiculous and overwhelming. He was pretty sure that Patrick wouldn’t want a $200 designer sock collection or a pair of custom cufflinks. 

By the end of the third day, he had discarded dozens of different gift ideas and had gained a new appreciation for Patrick’s seemingly effortless thoughtfulness. Trying to find the right gift that was both personal and significant enough to mark the occasion was proving a lot harder than he had expected. He wanted to make Patrick smile, to give him something that was uniquely them, that Patrick could think about and be reminded of how much David loved him. 

He was sitting behind the counter at the store, glumly flipping through the photos on his phone and hoping for inspiration, when Stevie came in. 

“Still stuck on ideas for that special gift, huh?” As always, her tone managed to be mocking and somehow sympathetic at the same time.

“I thought it would be easy, but nothing feels right.” Everything he’d looked at was very nice, but Patrick deserved something that would show him how much he meant to David. 

“Maybe it doesn’t have to be a physical gift,” Stevie suggested. “The things that Patrick’s given you that mean the most weren’t things that he got at a store.”

***

The morning of their wedding finally arrived. He’d set his alarm so that he’d be sure to wake up early enough. But in the end, he hadn’t needed to worry, excitement and anticipation about the day to come had woken him up earlier than he’d probably ever been awake in his life. 

He laid in bed for a moment, this would be the last morning he would ever wake up in this motel room, the last morning he would ever wake up alone. He couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face, in less than twelve hours he and Patrick would be married. He just had one thing to do before he got ready for the busy day ahead.

Thankfully, Alexis was staying over with Ted, so he had the room to himself. He opened his notebook to the page where he’d written out what he wanted to say and dialed Patrick’s number. Patrick was usually at the gym at this time and as he’d hoped, the call went immediately to voicemail. He took a deep breath.

“Hi David, It’s Patrick,” he began, as he read out the first of the new messages he’d written. “I was just calling to tell you how much I love you. So feel free to give me a call back and I will be happy to walk you through it.”


End file.
